Voice acting for Animation. What counts?

It is my belief that voice actors need to embrace the character they are playing and then amp up the range and sincerity. When a character professes to like something it should be over the top, but still retain sincerity. The great thing about this is that you know when an actor gets it because you and everyone else will feel it. If an actors performance doesn't make you feel it, don't fool yourself, it's not right. Never go with a performance that's 'good' or 'ok' take the time to work with your actor until they get the right voice/inflection and you feel it -or find another actor- because with animation there's way too much work involved after the voice record to go back and try again.

One show that has great use of comic sincerity in both words and actions is Archer. Anything the characters say will be backed up by over the top actions - usually in the form of knives in the back or a shot to the leg.

While we're on the topic of sincerity a great comic juxtaposition for that trait is the addition of a fickle nature. This gives them to ability to believably replace what they just professed to love with something of equal or lesser value. The humour quotient rises exponentially if they are convinced by another character to replace the first item with something of lesser value. The first episode (Check it out on YouTube)  of the 'League of Super Evil' plays this out by the book for Lightening Liz when the lose'rs get her to trade her XGL Prototype Battle Armor from her father for the 'stuff I found in the kitchen' bot.

Eggs Gone Wild - You Look Pretty

The key to all of this is finding voice actors that are about to convey intensity & believability through their voice. I'd have to say that I feel that the best vocal performance I've gotten from an actor playing such a sincere and 'over the top' character was for Stephanie in the 'Eggs Gone Wild' episode 'You Look Pretty'. This voice actor pretty much nailed it as far as I'm concerned.